The ever-flowing healthcare bailouts edition | The Healthy Muse

Blake Madden
4 min readApr 25, 2020

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This week’s top healthcare news.

Non-COVID Things to know.

Phase II of the Coronavirus Crisis begins.

Economies are looking to open back up, but around 60% of Americans are wondering whether we’re opening up too soon.

At any rate, the U.S. will need to rely on more testing until a vaccine gets here.

Stimulus, Part IV; Scene 1

More bailout cash is coming for small businesses — $450 billion in total, $300 billion of which is slated for the paycheck protection program.

Notably for healthcare, another $75 billion in bailout $$$ is coming to hospitals on top of the $100 billion fund already approved in the CARES Act.

  • The news comes days after the American Hospital Association asked Congress — specifically the House — for more hospital funding.

About that CARES Act money… CMS is distributing another round of $30 billion to hospitals.

  • $20 billion will be based on each hospitals’ proportion of total revenue received from private insurers and Medicaid.
  • Then, the remaining $10 billion will be dispersed based on coronavirus need — i.e., addressing “hot spots,” or hospitals with large numbers of coronavirus patients.

In an interesting twist, private equity owned physician practices were shut out of the CARES Act bailout funds.

  • Remember: The first round of funding was distributed based on hospitals’ historical shares of Medicare revenue, which drew some backlash.

Other ‘Rona Reads.

Biz Hits

Other Hits

  • Prescriptions for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications have risen 21% post-COVID.
  • Where have all the other hospital patients gone? Heart attacks, appendicitis, and strokes have vanished. (WaPo)
  • How much more does private insurance pay over Medicare? TL;DR — about 200%. (KFF)
  • A 2020 business outlook for physical therapy.

Thought-Provoking Editorials

  • Withholding funding from the WHO is dangerous and must be reversed. (Nature)
  • Sending hospitals into bankruptcy. (WSJ)
  • The COVID-19 crisis is giving states that haven’t expanded Medicaid a chance to reconsider (TCF)

About the Healthy Muse.

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Originally published at https://thehealthymuse.com.

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Blake Madden

I write about healthcare. Policy, business, digital health, & more. Written in plain English. Here to connect, learn, and continue the healthcare convo.